Reflections
by JudyNFran
Summary: Shadi reflects on the past and future while watching Bakura sleep on Battle Ship.


Blank, reflectionless eyes narrowed as they watched the unconscious boy breathing. He could feel him... Even though the Ring was no longer on him, the echoes of the man who possessed it still lingered in his host, almost like a scent of someone who had only stepped out for a moment. Almost like a territorial warning.

He shouldn't be there. He had other things to do, other things to over see, other strings to pull...

But he stood, watching the boy's chest rise and fall, almost able to see the gold Item that normally rested on it.

So many things about them were the same, yet so different. Maybe after everything had passed, he'd approach the boy and see if the softer version of that painfully familiar face held a truer version of the lies that had led him astray.

He'd been avoiding this one because of it. Letting his father receive the Ring and bring it to him, much like how the Pharaoh's reincarnation had received the shattered Puzzle. But he could face that boy. There was no hurt of betrayal, no shameful anger in his presence. Just the echo of the greatness he still served. The greatness who never knew his moment of weakness and his foolish betrayal.

It had been three thousand years and he still couldn't remove the weight on his heart from that one night. Ironic, really. The one who wielded the Scales, who weighed the hearts of others, knew his own heart would never pass the test of the Gods.

One moment of weakness. He had been so foolish, thinking the man to be truthful. He was a thief, a defiler and a murderer. But having learned of what had happened, after learning the history of the Items, he had been willing to take a chance on believing in the good of the last survivor of a brutal tragedy, to believe that the divine nature of his kaa indicated a light, buried deeply under layers of hatred. If he could just reach that light, the fighting would end. All the other criminals who had had dark kaas removed returned to normal life, why wouldn't it work for this one? Restore the divine nature of his kaa and no longer have him as an enemy.

So naive... His hands clenched in self directed anger.

It had been Mahaado that had found him, barely able to stand, let alone walk. No questions had been asked, no words spoken, just silent and comforting assistance. A small white lie to a healer and there was no more evidence.

First Mahaado, then Karim... the face that had smirked down at him was so different then the charming impish grin that he had fallen prey to. No tone of jest, no teasing. His twisted soul had become more so with the released darkness of the Ring. If he hadn't known better, he almost could have convinced himself that the two were utterly different, twins of dark and light, much like that of him and his reincarnation. Gone was the almost soft voice, the mischievous twinkle in the warmth of his eyes. Everything was harsh and cold, like the ground underneath him as his kaa faded from existence.

Watching his reincarnation, he could still see the warmth he had been captivated by. The light laugh, the well meaning joke, the endless smile that covered up the endless pain he kept hidden deep inside. But no hatred. Even when he had been kind, there was always the current of darkness running through him. He could almost feel it coming off in waves, even now, the silent scream of a small child watching his entire life go up in bloody flames around him and swearing revenge.

The screaming in his reincarnation was more a cry for help, a plea for someone to reach out to him as the man now watching him had once done for his darker pre-incarnation.

But he couldn't answer that cry. Not while the defiler still lived within him. The game had to be played out, the pieces on the board moved into place so that everything could come to a close. Until then...

Closing his dulled eyes briefly, he reached out with the Key, reaching into the boy's soul room where he slumbered. Very gently, he placed a blanket over the sleeping form before placing another over the broken toys and dolls that kept growing in the space of the boy's mind.

It didn't change anything. The damage was still there and would continue to grow. But for a little while, the smile would be more genuine and the hurt hidden in the brown eyes would be harder to see.

And Shadi could pretend, just for a little while, that the spirit of the boy who he had tried to save would still live on in the smile of his reincarnation. 


End file.
